Following a five year effort and 14 month assessment, queen scallops from the Faroe Islands have been awarded Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.
Despite the fishery scoring well on its environmental impact and management, along with its long history of low-impact fishing and fishing licenses being granted to a single vessel, the fishery had previously suffered do to a lack of scientific data on scallop stocks. But by using the MSC’s risk-based framework (RBF), the auditors were able to establish the sustainability of the stocks by taking a more precautionary approach to ensure that stocks are sustainable. As part of the certification, managers have committed to further improvements to build scientific data available on scallop stocks and how quickly fishing grounds recover.
Jógvan Martin F. Joensen from the fishery said: “Based on long-term stable catches we have always been convinced that our queen scallop fishery is sustainable in every sense and now customers and consumers can easily verify that by seeing the MSC logo. The certification process took a long time as fishery evaluators needed scientific information, which was not immediately available. Having achieved the MSC certification is a positive development in our fishery and has already proven to be advantage when marketing the products abroad.”
